USA Today announced that a Transsexual was awarded $500,000 in back pay and damages for having job offer rescinded after announcing her transition from a man to a woman. Diane Schroer applied for and offered a position as a terrorism analyst at the Library of Congress while she was still David Schroer. When she announced to a Library official that she was undergoing gender reassignment surgery the offer of the position was pulled.
The Library of Congress and the Justice Department attempted to argue that discrimination of transsexuality was not illegal sex discrimination under the civil rights act. They lost their argument.
Discrimination in any form is wrong. One’s ability to perform a job does not change because one’s sex is re-assigned or one comes out of the closet as gay or lesbian or intersexed.
My grandmother taught me about diversity when I was a child. She was a botanist by training and would take me out on walks into the woods on her land. SHe would name for me all the different ferns and flowers that grew on the property. I remember her saying to me that even though I knew what a New York Fern looked like it didn’t mean I knew all there was to know about New York Ferns. There are natural variations that occur in the ferns fronds and to look and admire these differences. She would point out the frond that ended in two or three points instead of just one. Or she would point out how some of the fronds leaves going up to the point would also have two or more points on them. Each fern had this diversity in them and diversity was part of the natural order of things.
We see it in the human species as well… this child born with undistinguished genitalia, this other child born with webbed feet. This child born gay, this one bi-sexual, and this other child a chimera; born with two different DNA patterns in her body. Transgender is just another aspect of the diversity in the human species. All of it is to be celebrated. All of it shows something of the magnificance of creation.
Discrimination against our diversity as a human species is at some level giving god the proverbial finger; by creating diversity god messed up big time. Who are we to question creation? Each creation is a gift to all of us, no matter how long that creation is here among us. Let’s celebrate the differences and honor each other’s worth and dignity. Blessings,
A Unitarian Universalist Minister in the South 
“Discrimination against our diversity as a human species is at some level giving god the proverbial finger;”
Or even spitting in God’s eye. . .
Robin, I am sorry to have reminded you of your traumatic experiences with U*Us in Montreal. That is not my intent in my post. You had an experience that U*U’s rejected. I’m sorry for that experience of rejection. But it seems to me that it does little good to keep beating U*Us on the head with it at every turn. That can not be a pleasant experience for you. It surely is not for me and I happen to believe that you had this mystical event. It’s meaning? I have no idea. It’s a mystery. But I do know that clinging on to the anger as a response to those who do not believe you is not healthy for you. Not after 18 years. I pray you will find peace with this conflict with U*Us.
Thanks for this, Fred. There is a lovely quote, either from Starhawk or Margot Adler, about religious diversity being as necessary as biodiversity. Your post reminds me of this – for if we are created in the image of the holy, then every individual is expressing some aspect of the holy.
No worries Fred. I just couldn’t resist pointing out the ironic overlap between your words and the headline of the first Montreal Mirror article about my public protest against the anti-religious discrimination that I encountered in Montreal. That discrimination went well beyond the simple rejection of my revelatory mystical experience and descended into anti-religious bigotry that had very close parallels to your classic witch-hunt.
I am not clinging to anger. I wasn’t angry when I made that comment or most other comments I make. What I am clinging to is a demand for justice, equity and compassion in human relations. A demand that U*Us in positions of responsibility in Montreal and Boston have obstinately ignored for the better part of 13 years (not 18 yet. . .) There would be no need to such “clinging” if U*Us themselves didn’t very stubbornly cling on to their obstinate refusal to responsibly acknowledge and redress the injustices that I am complaining about. Unfortunately they not only refuse justice but continue to perpetrate and perpetuate other injustices.
I will find a measure of peace when U*Us finally get around to providing some genuine restorative justice to me and other people who have been discriminated against and/or otherwise victimized by U*Us. With any luck some tangible restorative justice for victims of all forms of clergy misconduct may be provided in the months following the election of President Bill Sinkford’s successor if I can take the words of Rev. Dr. Laurel Hallman and Rev. Peter Morales at face value. I regret that President Bill Sinkford did so little to redress what he once described as my “obviously deep concerns”, and clergy misconduct more generally, while he was UUA President. AFAIC He left a legacy of negligence for Rev. Hallman or Rev. Morales have to deal with. . .
Getting back to the specific form of discrimination that you are dealing with here, I very much agree with the spirit, if not the letter, of what you have said. I can quibble over some points but agree that GBLT people are part and parcel of God’s creation and that they should not be discriminated against for something they have little or no control over.
Robin, I wish you well.
I know that you wish me well Fred, and I appreciate it. You are definitely in my good books and I hope to have the pleasure of meeting you in person one day.